Kynoch 303 british surplus

[smellie]

It is quite easy to get keyholes with ammunition which is too light a load; there is enough pressure to spit the bullet out, but not enough to give it the velocity, and thus the spin, it needs for stabilisation.

As to ammunition manufactured by the George Kynoch company, I have always found their ammo to be of the highest quality. I have shot a bit of it over the years (it was SUPER expensive here when we could still get it) and have never had a problem.

What I think is happening here is an old batch of ammo in which the primers have got dodgy through poor storage. Ammunition loaded for the Army was loaded with a quarter-inch primer in which the actual priming compound was a mixture of fulminate of mercury and potassium chlorate. YES: horrible thing, it was actually MERCURIC AND CORROSIVE at one and the same time.

It wasn't stupidity that led the Brits to do such a thing. Rather, it was the fact that they had to be able to make ammunition in England which they KNEW would work anywhere in the world. And this is where it gets to be fun. Fulminate of mercury primers were known, in the old days, to start going bad after 2 years but, if they were still good, they would give good, hot ignition. Chlorate primers were not as good for lighting up the Cordite, but they would work in most weather conditions and they were relatively stable.

I have no idea where you might be, friend, apart from the clue offered by the US quarter in your photo and even this could be a false clue, so to speak: I am looking at a Spade Guinea right now and I am not in England, nor am I in the 18th Century! One thing, it might be useful to know the conditions in which you were shooting. Even more important, it would be far MORE useful to know the date of this ammo.... and how it has been stores since Year One, so to speak.

I think what you have is dodgy primers. The Fulminate has degraded completely and you are relying on the Chlorate to ignite the stuff..... and it is entirely possible that it has been degraded by the decomposition of the Fulminate.

On the other hand, there could be another problem. I have seen this come about with a lot of GB (Greenwood and Bately) 1955 ammo which was sold around here. It was known to be so awful that bandoleers of it were given away at shoots as door-prizes. I noticed light strikes on the primers of rounds which had shot poorly (this was in cold weather) and tried to say something, but nobody wanted to listen. Took a bunch home and shot it through a rifle which I KNEW had a good, hard strike.... and all the problems disappeared. Your problem MIGHT be in the ammunition, friend, but I would take a really good look at the RIFLE you were shooting this stuff in. These old primers tended to last pretty well, but they DID need a good, solid smack to set them off.

Check that out and get back to me here.

We'll solve this somehow. Kynoch is usually VERY good stuff.